Ensoniq ESQm to SQ80m conversion guide

2nd revision – 9/25/19 – based on the guide by Rainer Buchty - tozzy@protonmail.com

This is the 2nd revision of the SQ80m install guide and contains some
important typo fixes & clarifications! Please refer to this guide.

The ESQm shares the same structure as the ESQ-1 keyboards which cannot
address more than 32kb of sound wave data. The flip flop allows us to access
the increased memory space. The modified 1.3 firmware was unofficially
produced by Ensoniq but never sent to market. No custom adapters or
hardware are necessary for this modification. This guide assumes you have
basic soldering knowledge and have all the tools and components necessary to
do this modification. Go slow and double check your work constantly!

Items needed: Soldering Iron, wire (I use 24awg usually but anything around that is OK), 27C256
containing OS 1.3, 27C020 containing the SQ80 wave data, 74LS74 flip-flop IC & a 3/32 hex wrench.

1. Install Preparation
a. Remove the hex 12 screws holding the lid on the ESQm. Before going any further, please inspect the
power supply board. These machines are getting old and have a lot of heavy capacitors mounted
sideways. I’ve seen a lot of ESQm’s with broken legs on some capacitors. It may be a good time to do a
re-cap if you’re confident enough in your DIY skills, or send it to someone who can repair it for a small
fee. If the ESQm is working fine and doesn’t have any visually damaged components, you can leave it.
b. Choose a location to mount the flip flop. Some people like to glue it with the legs facing up to the back
on the DOC chip. I strongly prefer to do the wiring to the flip flop first, wrap it in electrical tape, and then
go from there. Of course, what you choose to do at this step is up to you.
c. Replace the OS ROM. We will leave the wave ROMs in for now. On the SQ80m wave ROM, bend up the
following pins: 1, 2, 3, 22, 24, 30, 31, 32. You can refer to the photo below:

Figure 1
 2. Wiring & Installing the Flip-Flop

Much of the work is related to wiring the flip flop to various places. Your job will likely be easiest if you get the flip flop
wired first and then wire that to where it needs to go. You do not have to be obsessive about the length of the wire you
use – it’s not crucial the wires are short as possible. Personally, I leave enough room that I can mount the flip flop to the
back of the chassis. The DOC chip is labeled “5503 DOC” or “ICS1261D”. Mine has “Ensoniq ©1984” printed on it and it is
at position U21. Each IC in the ESQm has the notch facing the front of the machine. Thus, this guide counts the pins on
the DOC chip the same way as we count it on the EPROM as shown in Figure 1.

a. Connect wires to pins 2, 3, 5, 7 and 14. These will go to the DOC, the wave ROM, and the 74LS373 (the
chip between the wave ROMs and the DOC).
b. Make a solder bridge or use wires to join pins 10, 11, 12 and 13 on the flip flop.
c. Connect a wire from pin 1 to pin 14 on the flip flop.
d. Complete the wiring as follows. Don’t hook up the wire from pin 5 to the wave ROM yet, since you will
most likely want to check to make sure everything works before swapping in the new wave ROMs.

74LS74 Flip-Flop Destination (DOC @ U21 unless otherwise stated)

2 10 (Channel address bit 3)
3 6 (Channel address strobe)
5 N/A (Voice ROM, bit 17)
7 19 (GND)
14 39 (VCC +5v)
1, 4, 10, 11, 12, 13 14 (73LS373 / U19)

e. Assuming you’ve left the original wave ROMs inserted to make sure everything is good, this is a good
time to plug the ESQm in to power and MIDI In and play some notes. If it doesn’t boot up, shut it off
right away and check for bad connections. Make sure the notes sound properly and the notes you get
are the correct notes (it’ll be obvious if they’re not, you don’t have to play very many to find out if it’s
good).

3. Installing the Wave ROM

a. Remove both wave ROMs and insert your freshly made SQ80m wave ROM into either slot. The chip is
larger than the socket, so leave the top edge with the notch hanging off. I personally like to put a little
Kapton tape around the socket I choose to use, mainly to protect the surrounding area.

Figure 2 – from left to right: Wave ROM, 73LS373 IC, Ensoniq DOC sound IC
 b. Now it is time to wire the wave ROM as follows. Do note that I find it easiest to bend legs 31 and 32 on
the wave ROM so they touch each other, and then add a dab of solder.

Voice ROM Destination pin (Chip, signal)

1 16 (Voice ROM, GND)
2 40 (DOC, Bank Select)
3 19 (73LS373, Sample Address 15)
22 5 (DOC, Wave ROM chip select)
24 3 (DOC, Voice ROM output enable)
30 5 (74LS74 Flip-Flop, Bit 17)
31 / 32 20 (73LS373, +5V power)

Below is the pinout of the 73LS373 as is located at U19:

Figure 3

That’s all! 😊

At this point, you should double check to make sure everything is wired properly, to the proper
places, and there are no short circuits. Once you’ve verified everything looks good, go ahead and
switch on your newly made SQ80m. If it doesn’t power on, shut it off and unplug the power to find
out where the issue is. One time while doing this modification, I had a machine with a blank screen,
but it would blink the Compare light twice upon power on, and found I had a loose connection to one
of wires on the DOC. Upon fixing this, the machine booted right up. There is not too much to go
wrong here.

The photo on the next page is not great, but it’ll give you an idea of where the wires should generally
be going to & from. If everything powers on normally, you are all set to go, but you should do an
initialization after testing some notes over MIDI to make sure everything works as expected. If you
replaced the lithium battery during this procedure, there’s no need to do an initialization.

DON’T USE REMOVABLE BATTERY HOLDERS! The ESQm / SQ80m absolutely cannot have the
battery coming loose under any circumstances while operating.
Huge thanks to Rainer Buchty, who created the original guide which inspired this one.

Sources / References:
1) http://www.buchty.net/ensoniq/files/sq80m.pdf (Original SQ80m conversion guide)
2) http://p6ers.net/mm/pc-6001/dev/flashromcard/8k.html (27C020 pinout graphic, Figure 1)
3) http://www.pyroelectro.com/projects/pyro_propeller_clock_pov/74ls373_latch.html (73LS373, Figure 3)